I have to admit, for some reason I thought this was urban fantasy when I bought it, and I don't know if I would have picked it up if I'd realised it leaned more towards traditional fantasy. That would have been an awful shame, as I'd have missed out on a great read!
In the world of the Crescent, hawks and werewolves live in an uneasy balance with humans. When tragedy strikes the village of Five Hands, the future of this tenuous peace is threatened by civil war, politics, and good-old-fashioned murder.
Sked has created a world that is very different from the typical fantasy fair, populating it with down-to-earth, gritty characters and touches of magic and folklore that are believable and fascinating. Whilst at first I did have trouble keeping all the hawks straight, by about halfway in, they all felt like old friends. And as a massive werewolf fangirl, I loved Sked's take on her wolves and their culture, which was a sharp contrast to that of the mysterious hawks.
The pacing wasn't always great - at one point I did forget who the hawks were hunting down - but vivid characters like Amber (amazing!) and Mornevaine more than made up for this. And Sked isn't afraid to put her characters - or readers - through the emotional wringer through the book. I was never quite sure how things would work out for anyone, and it felt as though everyone was at risk, if not from outside forces then from their own inner demons.
In short, I'm glad I didn't miss this one, and I very much look forward to the rest of the trilogy.
